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York police: One dead at Veterans Political Association; gunfire exchanged

Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated:
11/26/2012 10:14:50 PM EST

Update on Monday

The cause of death for Juan Bonilla is a gunshot injury to the chest, according to the York County Coroner's Office. The manner is homicide,

York police say they and West Manchester Township Police responded to a fight at the Veterans Political Association early this morning, wound up in a shootout with people at the scene and found one person dead.

State police said Juan Bonilla Jr., 21, of York died. His cause of death will be determined after an investigation and autopsy results, state police said.

State police said no one has been arrested yet.

York police Chief Wes Kahley said in an email this morning that no officers were injured.

As is protocol when officers use deadly force, he said, they will be put on paid administrative leave and will undergo critical incident stress debriefing.

York County District Attorney Tom Kearney was on the scene at 3 a.m.

"There were a lot of shots fired," he said this morning. "There were shots apparently going in a whole lot of directions, even into Subway."

The sandwich shop is south of the shooting scene, across Route 30.

State police said a fight involving numerous people broke out inside the VPA, a private club, and shots were fired inside the building, causing the crowd to move outside. While the crowd was in the parking lot, several more shots were fired. That's when York and West Manchester Township police arrived.

Kearney said investigators "pulled in a lot of people" for questioning, and officers who were at the scene also were being interviewed as of 6 a.m.

Kearney said the incident appeared to have originated from the Veterans Political Association, which is behind Royer's Flower Shop in the 800 block of Loucks Road.

He identified the VPA as formerly being Ada's, an after hours club. Kahley said the shooting "occurred at and was associated with" what he referred to as Ada's.

Kearney said he would not speculate if the shooting was related to previous shootings near Five Guys, which is east of the VPA, or near Momo's, which is west of the VPA. Those shootings occurred on Sept. 2 and last week, respectively. A woman was critically injured in the Sept. 2 shooting, and a man died in last week's shooting.

"Much of what is occurring on Route 30 is the result of a late night crowd that has existed since I came on the job," Kahley wrote in an email. "We have been successful in closing other locations down where this activity occurred in the past. This has unfortunately moved to other locations when business owners refuse to keep problem patrons out and allow groups to gather on private property."

Efforts to reach people at the VPA this morning have been unsuccessful. Jay Laboy, manager at Momo's, said the restaurant is trying to cooperate with police, and said it has started closing its doors at 1:30 a.m., though the restaurant delivers until 4 a.m.

Early Saturday morning, according to the city police's news release, officers from York and West Manchester Township police departments got to the association, in the 800 block of Loucks Road, at about 2:30 a.m. They found people fighting and shooting. Some of those people fired on officers, and officers returned fire. The news release did not indicate whether officers shot anyone.

Police found one person dead.

Because officers fired, state police are investigating. A trooper at the scene said state police could not release any information yet.